If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a hard-beaten path to his house, though it be in the woods.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
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My background is in recreation and wildlife management, as well as environmental law enforcement. Why do I build furniture? Simple: it's what I love to do, what keeps me going, what I want to do for as long as I can. My woodworking career started as a kid banging nails into boards, and helping (okay, watching) family members and neighbors building things, in awe of the methods, the materials, and, of course, the tools. In school, I always excelled in art class, and learned in high school how to create with stained glass. After high school, I experimented with glass and woodworking, and after college, while working with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, I heeded the urge to create with wood; I visited a well-known high end furniture maker's showroom, and I was hooked. I started Graber Woodworking LLC part time out of a one-car garage in Bowie, Maryland. Then, wanting more, I left my employment and began as an apprentice at a large custom shop outside Washington, DC, where I learned from wonderful craftsmen.Moving on several years later to Madison, Wisconsin, I rehabbed an old barn on my property and reopened Graber Woodworking, building many pieces over the next 15 years before moving to Juneau, Alaska.
Here in Juneau, besides settling into a new town and home, I turned small wooden gifts and sold them to galleries. Soon, however, I ended up working for the State of Alaska for several years, always missing that shop in Wisconsin, the smell of wood, the sound of the chisel slicing through fiber. Suffice it to say, I had to return to what I loved, and opened Rainforest Custom right here in Juneau. |
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With over 25 years of experience designing, and hand crafting hundreds of pieces, it's a pleasure to continue to fill a need in this community building quality handmade products that last for generations. In this time of the quick and easy, the mass-produced and fast-delivered items that we all buy, it's gratifying to be one of the people who still make things. People who take the time to ponder use, design, materials, and methods, and most importantly, the end user, you!
— Dean Graber, owner of Rainforest Custom, LLC
— Dean Graber, owner of Rainforest Custom, LLC
Rainforest Custom LLC thanks community
published in the Juneau Empire | 11/22/2015 [link]
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many wonderful people of Juneau. Rainforest Custom LLC has been open since mid-September and the results have been truly awesome. I could not be happier with the amount of business that has come through my door thus far.
First, thank you to my best cheerleaders, my family, without whom this business venture would never have come to fruition. Next to Bruce Abel, whose assistance and coaching along the way helped Rainforest Custom come to be. Ian Grant with the Small Business Development Center has been an invaluable resource. Thanks to James Brooks and the Juneau Empire for the amazing article on my start up; it has been a huge driver for business. I’ve also been supported by Elgee Rehfeld Mertz, LLC, City and Borough of Juneau, Kevin Dilg Esquire and the many business owners I talked with before even starting.
A huge thanks to the many friends that helped clean, tear apart, reorganize and paint the shop for a fresh new look. I could not have done this without all of you! I’ve also appreciated friends who have visited with gifts and to wish me well, and others from the community who have stopped by to donate wood and supplies to “a good home.” I have been overwhelmed by the community support.
In this very short time I have had the pleasure to meet so many wonderful people in this town. Every day I get inquiries from individuals about crafting custom pieces or requests to repair items that still have plenty of life in them. I look forward to a beautiful partnership with all customers of Rainforest Custom, LLC.
Dean Graber
Rainforest Custom LLC
published in the Juneau Empire | 11/22/2015 [link]
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the many wonderful people of Juneau. Rainforest Custom LLC has been open since mid-September and the results have been truly awesome. I could not be happier with the amount of business that has come through my door thus far.
First, thank you to my best cheerleaders, my family, without whom this business venture would never have come to fruition. Next to Bruce Abel, whose assistance and coaching along the way helped Rainforest Custom come to be. Ian Grant with the Small Business Development Center has been an invaluable resource. Thanks to James Brooks and the Juneau Empire for the amazing article on my start up; it has been a huge driver for business. I’ve also been supported by Elgee Rehfeld Mertz, LLC, City and Borough of Juneau, Kevin Dilg Esquire and the many business owners I talked with before even starting.
A huge thanks to the many friends that helped clean, tear apart, reorganize and paint the shop for a fresh new look. I could not have done this without all of you! I’ve also appreciated friends who have visited with gifts and to wish me well, and others from the community who have stopped by to donate wood and supplies to “a good home.” I have been overwhelmed by the community support.
In this very short time I have had the pleasure to meet so many wonderful people in this town. Every day I get inquiries from individuals about crafting custom pieces or requests to repair items that still have plenty of life in them. I look forward to a beautiful partnership with all customers of Rainforest Custom, LLC.
Dean Graber
Rainforest Custom LLC
9999 Glacier Hwy, Juneau AK 99801 | (907)-635-0293 | rainforestcustom@gmail.com